The Model Migrant and Multiculturalism: Analyzing Neoliberal Logics in US Sanctuary Legislation

Abstract

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a US public interest nonprofit organization, in a 2013 publication warned of the “dangerous trend” of “immigrant sanctuary” policies “sweeping the country” (FAIR 2013, 1). The policies to which FAIR refers are described as “sanctuary legislation,” local immigration policies, resolutions and/or ordinances that counter exclusionary state or federal legislation. These local policies contain a variety of stipulations, which include providing public services to residents irrespective of migration status, refusing to comply with federal law enforcement mandates, addressing place-based discrimination experienced by migrants, critiquing unequal power relations that produce migration flows and declaring a place a sanctuary. The locales that have enacted sanctuary legislation are known collectively as “sanctuary cities” or counties. The FAIR report notes that the community costs purportedly associated with unauthorized migration far surpass the possible benefits afforded through providing sanctuary. In an effort to showcase the geographic spread of this expanding “threat,” the authors of the report detail the FAIR-defined immigrant sanctuary policies evident in 103 cities, towns and counties across the United States (FAIR 2103, 1–2).